KYIV, Nov 16 (Reuters) – President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine must do everything it can to ensure the war with Russia ends next year through diplomacy.
However, Zelensky said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not interested in agreeing to a peace deal, arguing that it was convenient for Moscow to sit and talk while continuing to fight.
“For our part, we must do everything so that this war ends next year, through diplomatic means,” Zelenskyy said in a Ukrainian radio interview broadcast on Saturday.
Moscow’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva said on Thursday that Russia would be open to negotiations to end the war if they were initiated by Trump, although he added that these would have to recognize “the reality on the ground”.
Moscow uses this phrase to mean that Ukraine should cede four regions that Russian forces have partially occupied and that Russia has claimed in their entirety.
Zelensky has repeatedly said since Russia’s large-scale invasion in February 2022 that peace cannot be achieved until all Russian forces are expelled and all territory captured by Moscow, including Crimea, is returned.
However, a return to Ukraine’s internationally recognized 1991 borders was not mentioned in the president’s “victory plan” that he publicly presented last month.
Zelenskyy said the war would likely end more quickly under Trump, who often said during his campaign that he would end the conflict quickly, without providing details.
Zelenskyy said US law prevented him from meeting Trump before his inauguration on January 20.
“We will do everything that depends on us (to guarantee a meeting). We had a very good meeting in September,” Zelenskyy said, adding that he wanted to talk only to Trump himself and not to an envoy or adviser.
Situation in Eastern Ukraine
Zelenskiy admitted that the situation in eastern Ukraine was difficult and that Russia was making progress.
Moscow’s armed forces are currently launching an attack on Kurakhove, which has a thermal power plant and is just 7 km from Pokrovsk, a major city that has been one of Ukraine’s logistical hubs for much of the war.
On the battlefields of eastern Ukraine, Russia is now making progress at the fastest pace since the early days of the 2022 war.
Zelenskyy said the situation was difficult for several reasons, including delays of up to a year in equipping brigades, partly because of months of delays by the US Congress last winter in approving aid to Ukraine.
However, he said some of these brigades would now join the battle.
“To stop the Russian army, new reserves will now arrive, equipped with the equipment we have been waiting for so long,” he said.
Ukraine has tried to increase its own weapons production to reduce dependence on allies. Zelenskiy said Ukraine is now making four different missiles, which he said are currently being tested.
(Reporting by Max HunderEditing by Kevin Liffey and Frances Kerry)
